Ru-Yi Zhu

Ru-Yi was born and raised in Nanjing before relocating to Chongqing at 12, since then, he has fallen in love with the spicy food there but definetely not the weather. After spending 7 years in Chongqing, Ru-Yi moved to Beijing and obtained his BS with honors in chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Zhang-Jie Shi at Peking University in July 2013. Then he moved to the Scripps Research Institute and received his PhD in chemistry with Prof. Jin-Quan Yu in November 2018, focusing on tackling challenging aliphatic carbon-hydrogen (C-H) bond activation with novel ligands and directing groups. After that, he decided to stay in sunny California and joined Prof. Eric T. Kool’s lab at Stanford University as a postdoc to develop chemical tools to study DNA, RNA, and associated proteins for therapeutic applications. Recently, Ru-Yi was awarded the prestigious NUS Presidential Young Professorship (PYP) in April 2021. He joined the Department of Chemistry as a NUS PYP Assistant Professor in September 2021. His research will be focusing on designing novel DNA/RNA mimetics for biomedicine and catalysis.

Recognition and Achievements

• NUS Presidential Young Professorship, NUS, 2021
• Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad Award, China, 2018
• Pfizer/CCHF (Center for Selective C−H Functionalization) Symposium Travel Award, Pfizer/CCHF, 2017
• ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable Student Travel Award, ACS Green Chemistry Institute, 2017
• Boehringer Ingelheim Fellowship, Boehringer Ingelheim, 2016-2018
• AbbVie Scholar Award, AbbVie, 2015
• The Best Undergraduate Thesis Award, Peking University, 2013
• Excellence in Undergraduate Research Award, Peking University, 2013
• May Fourth Scholarship, Peking University, 2012
• Panasonic Education Scholarship, Peking University, 2011

Research Interests

• Next-Generation RNA Therapeutics: We develop efficient synthetic methods to make novel RNA mimetics with improved stability, translation efficiency, and reduced immunogenicity for therapeutic applications including miRNA, siRNA, protein-replacement therapy, mRNA vaccine, and CRISPR.
• Reprogram RNA with Small-Molecule: We develop general cell-based platforms to identify selective RNA-binding small molecules and use optimized molecules to inhibit/activate RNA function (e.g., translation), degrade RNA, induce alternative splicing, and even edit RNA in vivo.
• Enzyme-Like DNA Catalyst Design: We design enzyme-like DNA catalyst by merging small-molecule catalysts (i.e., co-factor) with programmable DNA structures (i.e., chiral environment) for unsolved reactivity and selectivity problems in a more sustainable way.